Characters / Drowtales Val Sullisin Rune Clan

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Val'Sullisin'rune clan

Sullisin'rune clan symbol

The Sullisin'rune were the second of the four Great Clans in the Council of Nine to rise to power and are actually one of the oldest clans in Chel, with origins dating back to the Moons Age. Although formerly a clan of warrior empaths, following their defeat by the Sharen early in Chelian history they turned into a clan associated with decadence and incredible wealth. Famous in-story for throwing lavish parties and being made up of skilled empaths, the Sullisin'rune are nonetheless a powerful clan and were instrumental in getting the Sarghress Val status. In the Moons Age, the Sullisins had their own nation, the capital of which was known as Thalamani, which unfortunately was lost to demons. As a last resort, the then queen, Koma'lawen, took her people to Sharess' queendom as refugees and the Sullisins helped Sharess make her last stand against the demons on the surface world, leading to a period of peace and cooperation. By the time of the Moonless Age hostility between the two nations had again grown rife, causing a deep rift between the Sharen and the Sullisin'rune, despite the latter clan being officially on civil terms with the Sharen.

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General

Best Served Cold: Early in the Moonless Age, the Sharen wiped out most of the royal family for refusing to kneel. To get revenge, Ash'waren sponsored the Sarghress clan. Centuries later, the Sharen clan has built up so many enemies that the Sullisin'rune can finally attack the Sharen openly and are working towards killing them all off.

Beware the Silly Ones: The entire clan is seen as a clan of fashionable, party-loving hedonists who throw very lavish gatherings. In truth, it is implied that this is a front used to gather information on other clans under the pretense of sociability. Not to mention, almost everyone is an empath.

Deadly Decadent Court: Ash'waren certainly seems to believe so at least, only trusting Salan'dara, and to a lesser extent Faen. She eventually even goes so far as to remain among the Sarghress rather than return to her traitor filled home and ultimately departs into a self-imposed exile to avoid ending up dead.

The Empath: The clan is known for its use of empathy, and many of them got it from being descendants of Ash'waren. Most of the clan's empaths seen so far are female.

Facial Markings: The Sullisin'rune tattoos seem to be given to mark important milestones in a member's life, since a young Ash'waren is only shown with one of her tattoos in a flashback.

The Fashionista: In-universe they ARE this trope, though the Illhar'dro come close.

Gilded Cage: The Sullisin'rune dome is pretty much this, though some of the later generations don't see it as so much of a cage because it's all they know. And after the timeskip the gold paint on the dome literally starts flaking off after desperate commoners keep trying to pawn it.

The Hedonist: Pretty much their clan philosophy, at least on the surface.

Hope Spot: As recounted by Ash'waren, the arrival of the Sullisin in Sharess' lands was this, since they were greeted warmly by their old enemies and it was thought they could finally put their differences aside for the common good. And they did... for a few centuries, at which point hostilities between the two clans flared up again underground and nearly destroyed the Sullisin for good.

Knowledge Broker: Its heavily implied that the lavish parties they throw are often just fronts for gaining information on other clans.

Massive Numbered Siblings: Ash'waren claims that she has more daughters than anyone else left alive in the world, and she's likely not exaggerating. To put this into perspective; consider Zala'ess Vel'Sharen who is acknowledged within her clan to have a horde of children and in Chapter 34 directly states that she brought 500 of her lineage with her to Nuqrah'shareh, and then think about how many children Ash'waren must have had to have outnumbered even Zala'ess...

Mind Rape: A proper application of empathy has this effect, as Chrys'tel, Nau'kheol and Yami'ni find out in Chapter 37. It's also shown to be able to perform a type of Mind Control.

The Spy Master: As seen in the Knowledge Broker entry above, its implied that the Sullisin'rune operate a network of spies through their many contacts and that this is what they essentially became once they were defeated by the Sharen.

Tiger Versus Dragon: In their war with the Sharen, though they lost, and the Sullisin'rune clan page reveals that this rivalry goes much further back than the end of the Moons Age.

Ash'waren

The Ill'haress of the Sullisin'rune, Ash'waren is known as "Devil-Eyes" for her famous heterochromia and her alliance with the Sarghress. She is the mother of Faen, a young Sullisin empath who joined the Sarghress.

Break the Cutie: She not only survived the fall of her homeland and the exodus to the Underworld but later watched her clan be defeated and massacred by the Sharen, and she seems to still have a chip on her shoulder about that. The broken part of her personality becomes a lot more evident after the timeskip.

Broken Bird: If you read between the lines, there are hints that her "party girl" persona is an act and/or a coping mechanism to deal with what she's been through. Chapter 36 confirms this.

Cloudcuckoolander: Has this image due to her lifestyle, and the fact that she doesn't recognize Faen as her daughter suggests part of it is true. It's later deconstructed - her behavior hides the fact that she is a broken woman, possibly the Sole Survivor of her original family as the result of past wars with the Sharen. To some members of her own clan, she acts like a frivolous and incompetent ruler, which caused many to try assassinate her, and at least a few joined the Nidraa'chal. As a result, she became a distrustful shut-in within her own home, refusing to eat for fear of poison. Eventually it becomes so dangerous that she becomes a Noble Fugitive and goes on the run with the Sarghress.

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Her empathic abilities are so powerful that she could really mess you up if she wanted to, just look at what Faen can do and turn it Up to 11 and you get an idea of what you're dealing with. In Chapter 36 Faen unfortunately finds this out firsthand.

Curtains Match the Window: Well, one window, since one of her eyes is blue while the other is red, or possibly a very dark orange. Interestingly, it seems her red eye was originally green (note Word of God is that her eye color in that one sidestory is reversed from what it actually is because of an artist mix up, while the final page of the story confirms that it was the green eye that changed color.

Ethical Slut: She has a very open view of sexuality, which resulted in many children, including Faen. One of the unfortunate side-effects is her not being able to keep track of all the children she had over the years.

Facial Markings: The two blue tattoos on her face, as well as the jewel on her forehead.

Foe Romance Subtext: Its very possible that her relationship with Diva'ratrika in the past was like this, judging by the story of the Sullisin'rune defeatnote the part where they sleep together is not specifically in the script that was written by the author, the rest is.

Glowing Eye Of Doom: Terrifies her daughter, Faen, with this during a fit of rage and paranoia, though it may have just been in Faen's head.

Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand: She did this to Diva'ratrika in the aftermath of the Sharen/Sullisin'rune War, and in exchange for swearing not to rise against them again Diva spared her. It's also not hard to infer that one of the reasons Diva gave in was because she knew Ash'waren was also a Dark Elf.

Last of Their Kind: This appears to be the case for her, as her mother and sisters were all killed in the Sharen/Sullisin'rune War, leaving her as the sole heir to Sullisin'rune leadership. Not to mention actually being a Dark Elf, the numbers of whom at the time of the story can be counted on one hand.

Looming Silhouette of Rage: Does this to Faen when accusing her of betraying her loyalties to the Sullisin'rune clan in favor of the Sarghress. And the sad part is that she's probably right that Faen cares more about Ariel than her at this point, though there is a good reason for this. And subverted a page later in an unexpected bit of Mood Whiplash. It's also possible that most or part of that was in Faen's head.

Loophole Abuse: Her partnership with Quain'tana essentially allows her to do this in regards to fighting the Sharen, since while she said she wouldn't attack them again, they never said she couldn't support someone who would. Of course after the timeskip she seems to have dropped all pretense and is openly warring against the Sharen.

Mrs. Robinson: As someone who's been alive since the Sharen/Sullisin'rune War not to mention a dark elf she's significantly older than most of her lovers. Also qualifies in that it's been subtly implied that she might have something going on with Kel'noz, who's roughly a third of her age. And it's been confirmed that she and Quain were lovers, with Quain being much younger than she was even when they first met.

Noble Fugitive: Her grip over her clan gradually crumbles, especially with Salan'dara no longer around to support her. As a result, she chooses to flee before she ends up dead at the hands of her own descendants like Diva'ratrika.

Open Secret: It's implied that more people know about her being a dark elf than she thinks, but no one really makes a big deal out of it.

Parental Neglect: Several of her own descendants despise her, and Word of God compares her parenting skills to Diva'ratrika's. When told that Faen is back, she has to be reminded who her own daughter is, and then asks which one she is. Makes a sort of sad sense that she wouldn't know who Faen is since, according to in-universe custom, an older sister will raise her younger siblings, which was apparently the case with Faen and Salan'dara. In chapter 36 she seems to recognize that she's not been the best mom to Faen and promises to help her if things go any more to hell and she needs to escape. At least one of her children was implied to have tried killing her but failed, and Bae in Chapter 52 tried convincing Faen to help her take down Ash'waren, seeing her as a "careless monster" who should've died long ago.

Properly Paranoid: After the timeskip, her paranoia over servants poisoning her might seem like she's overreacting, but remember that we've seen another character very nearly die from poison, and Waes'soloth killed all of her servants after one of them attacked a child in the Beldrobbaen, so it's not that far-fetched. There's also the fact that she seems to be sporting a scar over her heart that wasn't there before, suggesting that someone really did try to kill her during the timeskip and may have nearly succeeded, and if nothing else, Khaless is within the dome as The Mole for Snadhya'rune, posing as Lulianne.

And when the chapter switches back to Nuqrah'shareh, Sullisin'rune are in the city, and it's later all but confirmed that the three empaths assisting in taking "The Weapon" are Nidraa'chal agents, and chapter 44 shows two more of her daughters at the Nidraa'chal gathering, one of whom (Ash'mita) explicitly wants to murder her.

Also her decision to run away from Chel by chapter 47 turns out to have been a wise one, since it meant she wasn't around during the Puppeteer incident, which very likely could have resulted in her death.

Really Gets Around: Infamous for it, and the fact that she has a literal horde of children and can't remember who all of them are is one of the results. Chapter 36 heavily implies that she has so many children because she was the last of her family after her mother, sisters and aunts were all killed during the war with the Sharen)

Really 700 Years Old: Even by the standards of the setting she's one of the oldest characters, since as a Dark Elf she's at least 1000 years old.

Sole Survivor: Heavily implied to be the last living member of her clan's royal family, which was why she tried having many children as she could to compensate.

Survivor Guilt: Heavily implied as she witnessed the near annihilation of her people twice, and many survivors of trauma like that often have many many children and see it as a way to compensate for their own survival.

Unexpected Successor: Implied, since Ash apparently had older sisters who died in the war with the Sharen, and she was likely never expected to rule. Also has shades of Reluctant Ruler, especially after Chapter 35.

Salan'dara Val'Sullisinrune

One of Ash'waren's older daughters, she functions as both her mother's personal attendant and (according to Kel'noz) an ambassador for the Sullisin'rune to form ties with other Chelian clans. She loves simplicity and sits beside her mother in the Council.

Distaff Counterpart: To Kel'noz, and shares his role as the only member of her family who seems to have her head screwed on straight.

Faen'arae Val'Sullisin'rune

One of Ash'waren's daughters and Ariel's best friend (though she'd like to be a bit more) who was forced to flee Orthorbbae pre-timeskip after causing the accidental death of a teacher. Her time on the surface was not a pleasant one and after Ariel rescued her, her traumatic experiences rendered her mute. Post-timeskip however, she seems to have made a good recovery.

Adoptive Peer Parent: Despite physically being the equivalent of a teenager, she an Ariel effectively take over the raising of Pup and the unnamed baby girl following chapter 50, to the point that Faen identifies them as their children when asked.

Afraid of Their Own Strength: Prior to chapter 51, this certainly applies due to lack of control. After her introduction in chapter 51, this no longer applies.

Bears Are Bad News: Die'tra quickly nicknames her "Bear" and while Faen is usually the cute and fuzzy type as the below tropes show she can be quite dangerous when provoked.

The Berserker: As of the timeskip, if she's pushed too far, her consciousness shuts down and she becomes a raging killing machine, having no idea what she's doing. When she snaps out of it, she is clearly horrified.

Covert Pervert: This is something of a Running Gag with Faen secretly being far kinkier than her demure appearance suggests. Especially since it's canon that she's secretly, or maybe not so secretly, in love with Ariel, a chibi presents her asking if Ariel could do "something fun" with her shape-shifting powers like a Gender Bender, and the Slavemaster version of Faennote who essentially exists in a "what if?" universe is quite kinky. And the author himself loves to add fuel to the fire (NSFW due to nipples).

Cute Mute: Was this after being rescued. Comparisons to Casca came quickly. Luckily, unlike her, she recovered during the 15-year timeskip.

Distressed Damsel: A rarity in the drowworld among females, but due to her disposition and the fact that most of the damage she inflicted on others pre-timeskip was accidental. As of Chapter 44 progressed to purposefully using her powers to hurt people. Though she lacks sufficient control to prevent herself from causing friendly fire when she does do so.

Emotion Bomb: One application of her empathy is to do this, which provides a handy way to take out multiple enemies at once. Unfortunately it doesn't have an OFF feature as Ariel and Chirinide find out the hard way.

Later on, in Chapter 52, she inflicts this on Bae by shoving all of her fears onto her, sending Bae into a panic and defeating her.

Empathic Healer: More so after the timeskip when she is kept as support in battles alongside Shala Val'Sharen.

Everyone Can See It: After the timeskip, her relationship with Ariel, which Mel directly asks her about.

Exposed to the Elements: In Chapter 46 she gets a cleavage-exposing dress for the dinner, and after they escape Felde is still in it and was forced to leave behind her jacket, something Ariel apologizes for since she's freezing.

Extreme Mêlée Revenge: In response to seeing the Sarghress traitors kill Vene and threaten the other two children she proceeds to beat one of them to death using her shield, and keeps at it even after he's obviously dead.

"Faen is her foil, the support she has, the one person she can rely upon to get a third person perspective for when she is afraid, nervous or hesitant as to what to do. Ariel get annoyed at Wafay’s demands? Faen is there to calm her down. Ariel fear to take the mantle of district leader? Faen is there to encourage her. Faen by herself is no hero, but by being the foil for someone else, she help [move] the story along".

Gondor Calls for Aid: In addition to pain feedback, her empathy is exceptionally useful for summoning aid.

Gut Feeling: In chapter 51, without using Empathy, she has a "bad feeling" about Ariel's decision to reject an obvious trap disguised as an "invitation" to Felde. She is proven right when Kyo'nne commits a war crime by attacking the Matchike tower while waving the flag of a diplomatic envoy, and then calling the Sarghress "stupid" for it.

Hates Baths: After the timeskip, and with good reason given what she witnessed in Nagyesced. Though this applies to communal showers, not actual bathtubs, as seen in Felde.

Hime Cut: As the daughter of the Ill'haress to a high-ranking clan, she definitely fits The Ojou status, her sweet and gentle personality the Yamato Nadeshiko archetype, and her hairstyle is styled as a Hime Cut because overall the webcomic is heavily influenced by manga and anime archetypes.

Living Emotional Crutch: To Ariel, and Ariel seems to serve this purpose for her as well. Chrys'tel also accuses Ariel of holding Faen back from becoming stronger by being her crutch.

Looming Silhouette of Rage: An empath trick she eventually picks up from Ash'waren in Chapter 52; it doesn't work against the more experienced Bae, however.

Mama Bear: It is quite unwise to go after the children under her care, doubly so right in front of her. Even, or especially if you try to beat her down and make her despair, she can and will fry your brains with pain feedback, and even tainted pain resistence only serves to dull this just enough to give you time to register just how badly you screwed up. Even Yuh'le, the expert in making people's heads explode with Empathy, tends to get shut down if somebody manages to knock her to the ground. In the unlikely event her empathy is not enough, she will bash you to death with a shield.

Nervous Wreck: Thanks to her traumatic past, as well as her empathy, she does not react well to stress and shivers quite frequently.

Not So Above It All: When she and Ariel visitMel's younger children she chastises Ariel for losing her temper at the boys and claims her experiences raising Yafein make her more qualified to deal with kids that age, only to lose her own temper almost immediately when the boys say her butt is too big to fit behind their barricade, to Ariel's visible amusement.

One Head Taller: Was this to Ariel when they were younger, but reversed after the timeskip where Ariel is now One Head Taller than her. Receives a lampshading in one extra page, where the one time Faen got angry at Ariel was when she realized that Ariel was now taller than her.

Only Known by Their Nickname: To the point that it wasn't even certain that her full name was anything but Faen until she refers to herself as such to remind her mother who she isnote She had been called Faen'arae in the pre-remake version of the story, but it wasn't until the linked page that readers were sure it was still canon.

Power Incontinence: Can't control her powers, and this was a big problem both for herself and everyone around her. She gained some control over it during the time skip. It still seems to take a lot of effort just to influence the likes of Suu'be to be more receptive to Ariel's requests, and her attempt to use an Emotion Bomb to take out the attacking Hermiones, while successful, unfortunately takes out Chiri and Ariel too.

Prophet Eyes: Protip: if her eyes go white, run, provided you actually get the chance! Being mauled to death by a wolf is one of the better fates that awaits you.

Pummeling the Corpse: Faen continues bashing the skull of Vene Val'Sarghress's murderer with a shield, even after he's already dead.

Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: With Ariel, and after the timeskip it seems to be less friendship and more romantic, at least on Faen's side Until the above relationship upgrade in Chapter 44.

Scars Are Forever: After the timeskip, the marks around her eyes from the trauma in Nagyesced are still there.

Secret Test of Character: Subjected to this by her mother Ash'waren in Chapter 36. Luckily she seems to have passed it as Ash'waren now decides that she and Salan'dara are the only two daughters she can trust.

Self-Harm: After the timeskip, is shown to scratch herself until she bleeds whenever she is distressed but hasn't exhibited his behavior for a while in-story, suggesting she's getting better.

Tap on the Head: Sarghress traitors hit her on the back of the head while trying to stop her from rescuing Ariel's young siblings. She's only out for a few seconds and proceeds to beat one of them to death with her shield once she gets back up

While she's still fairly far down as far as combat ability goes, post-timeskip she's able to weaponize her empathy at will to a degree she didn't before, and since getting together with Ariel has become a lot more confident.

When Ash'warren "tests" her again in chapter 51, Word of God is that Faen can now successfully resist the same level of power that left her a drooling, weeping mess on the floor the last time. Another empath even thinks Faen's strength is close enough to Ash's to be mistaken for her. What's more, it's Kel'noz, not Ash'warren, that's responsible for this vast improvement. The "how" remains a mystery.

Unhappy Medium: Faen is pretty much a textbook case of why empathy is not always a good thing.

Unskilled, but Strong: She is powerful enough to block a mana attack from a siege weapon, and her empathic attacks are enough to give Mae, Bae, and Sae working together cause for concern (and they can Mind Rape an entire army at once), but due to the trauma she endured in the Halme fortress, she's been so hesitant to practice with her powers, that she only does so under extreme duress, and then has great difficulty controlling them, which serves to make her even more scared of them.

Unstoppable Rage After witnessing Vene's murder and his killer threatening the lives of the other children, she proceeds to go ballistic and beat his skull in with nothing more than a shield.

What, Exactly, Is His Job?: It's not entirely certain just what Faen's official role in their squad actually isnote readers have joked that it's likely Team Pet and/or Ariel's girlfriend after they hook up, since Shala is officially the healer and Faen doesn't have much in the way of combat ability, which is referenced at one point.

Yafein Val'Sullisinrune

Faen's cousin and one of Ariel's first friends at Orthorbbae. Unfortunately he and Ariel are not on good terms in the wake of Faen's disappearance due to Ariel's killing of Maya when Yafein accidentally hit her Berserk Button. He appears after the timeskip in Nuqrah'shareh, where he's captured by Balsii's agents and held hostage.

Insane Troll Logic: Combined with Too Dumb to Live. After abandoning Ariel to the "tender mercy" of Miir'kin, Nau'kheol, and one other, when he learns Ariel survives, rather than apologize and beg forgiveness for his cowardice (it would have been a fight of three on two if he had stayed), or at least present a plausible excuse like going for help, he decides the correct thing to do is "prove himself" by attacking her and then insult her by calling her a monster when she breaks free. How he could have possibly expected this to go well is anyone's guess.

Put on a Bus: Didn't appear since Chapter 6 or early 2008 until the tail end of Chapter 32, where he was Put On A Bus again, though about a month or so actually passed in story between appearances. A rather ironic version, as it was Ariel who left the area the first time around. He then appears in Chapters 33 and 34.

Bi the Way: Has had romantic relations with both Zan'nah and Tur'geis.

Blue Blood: Though she's not a warrior, she's very much an old style Sullisin'rune at heart.

The Chessmaster: A less extravagant version, she does tend to use her empathy in a subversive manner.

Deep Cover Agent: Not her, but it is strongly suggested that her mother Ash'mita is a member of the Nidraa'chal, judging by the latter's appearance in Snadhya'rune's Felde peace gathering in Chapter 44.

A gatekeeper and golem pilot assigned to the Sulisin'rune Dome, encountered by Ariel and co during their visit. He later serves in the closing stages of the District War. Appears in Chapters 36, 47, and 50. His concept art can be found here◊.

The Engineer: As with any Golem pilot, he's well trained in their operation and maintenance.

Fearless Fool: Though by no means unintelligent, he's a risk-taker and somewhat prone to underestimating danger.

A rebellious member of the Sullisin'rune clan who has some unresolved issues with her mother, Ash'waren. She is first seen at Snadhya's gathering in Felde, during Chapter 44. She is also the mother of Min'issya Val'Sullisin'rune, the administrator encountered by Ariel's group in Chapter 40. Her concept art can be found here◊.

Green-Eyed Monster: She is notably jealous of Snadhya'rune's power and influence. At the Felde gathering she is shown to be giving Snadhya'rune a Death Glare.

Facial Markings: Her cheeks are marked with some type of symbol but unlike other Sullisin'rune she does not have painted face tattoos.

Mommy Issues: Her concept art has her pondering whether or not to stab her mother Ash'waren. Judging by the scar Ash'waren sports over her heart in Chapter 39, it is not hard to infer that Ash'mita may have been one of the traitor daughters she warns Faen about.

Mrs. Robinson: Is quite a bit older than her prospective mate, Aba'della.

Tsundere: Her concept art mentions that she has a love/hate relationship with Snadhya'rune.

Iliva'fay Val'Sullisin'rune*note Created by GEM76

A Sullisin'rune empath present at Snadhya's gathering in Felde. She is in charge of operating brothels in Chel under Sullisin'rune control. It's suggested that the Guild of Flowers is one of the organisations under her operations. She is the mate of Angjss'stra. Appears in Chapters 44 and 50. Her concept art can be found here◊.

Femme Fatale Spy: She uses her sex appeal on Kuso and possibly on Snadhya'rune as a Sullisin'rune spy.

Honey Trap: Implied to be acting as this towards Snadhya'rune in Chapter 44 on behalf of the Sullisin'rune. On a more obvious note it seems like she is playing up the trope for Kuso as well.

Killed Off for Real: Unceremoniously gutted by Erakusel, presumably as punishment for spying on Snadhya'rune. Unable to save her herself, and with no one else willing to help, Naal'suul Val'Beldrobbaen's demonic spirit then possesses her dying body and takes it for herself.

Miss Kitty: As the owner of several brothels catering to Chelian and Feldian Vals.

Mismatched Eyes: Like most Sullisin'rune she has these, with one blue and one purple eye.

Skunk Stripe: Has one lock of her gray hair dyed red, possibly to indicate that she supports the Sarghress/Sullisin'rune alliance.

Strong Family Resemblance: Looks quite a lot like an older, more mature looking Faen, which is not surprising as she is a supposedly a sister of Faen.

Shadow Archetype: Referred to as a "corrupt Faen" in the news post introducing her.

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